Private MD News

Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea on the rise

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning individuals that cases of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea are on the rise. The advice underscores the importance for partners to seek STD testing before engaging in sexual activity.

With antibiotics being the single most common course of treatment for the infection, it has long been feared that the bacteria would grow resistant. However, this fear appears now to be turning into reality, as experts say doctors are having more difficulty curing the infection.

Gail Bolan, director of sexually transmitted disease prevention at the CDC, and her team wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the gonorrhea virus has been growing resistant to the effects of antibiotics since this became the primary treatment in 1940. However, the process has accelerated during the course of the last three years.

"It is time to sound the alarm," the team wrote in their report.

The problem is particularly concerning given the high numbers of people infected with the disease. The report indicates that there are more than 600,000 new cases reported annually.